Topcats Race Report (by Charlotte Gilbert)
Discussion
As I was in France, or more accurately, on the back of a recovery vehicle during this Britcar Race, Charlotte Gilbert (Team Principle) has prepared the Race Report.
Topcats Racing arrived with a three car line up for the Brands GP race. The Marcos Mantis No. 43 of Mick Mercer and Richard Fores, Marcos Mantis No.42 of Jon Harrison and returnee Rupert Bullock who had had to sit out the last two rounds of the series. The @#%$ Tuscan was again joining the fray with driver David Upton being sole driver for the 100min Saturday race and Jeff Wyatt, sole driver for the 100min Sunday race.
Saturday 25th June
Having proven that the Marcos Mantis could challenge the times of the class 1 cars in the previous test days times, the team and drivers were hopeful of a good qualifying time from the Silver Mantis of Mercer/Fores with the improved engine performance and aerodynamic package and that the Bullock/Harrison Mantis wouldn’t be too far behind.
With just half an hours qualifying between the drivers, they were quickly able to translate the promise of yesterdays practice times into a fantastic 5th place for the Mercer/Fores cars, behind the Class 1 Ford Falcon, Porsche and Ferrari powerhouses. The Bullock/Harrison car put a very respectable lap time despite suffering a blown fuse for the power steering in the second half, to put them 13th overall and 4th in class. Meanwhile, David Upton was using the qualifying session to master the ferocious power and wayward handling of the @#%$ Tuscan. For him it would be a long race so he was happy to settle for P23 on the grid.
Mick Mercer and Rupert Bullock would start the race in their respective cars. On the green flag, the whole grid rounded the first corner without incident and eventually headed out of view onto the GP circuit. When they reappeared, Mick had clearly thrown caution to the wind and was now lying in 3rd place behind the leading 600BHP Ford Falcon and Porsche. Rupert was also making very good progress as he dispensed with several cars to put him up to 10th. Eventually, Mick had the pace to pass the Porsche to claim 2nd. The cars were now within the pit window so any safety car incident would warrant a call into the pits for refuel and driver change. Sure enough, a car had to be recovered from the track so the safety car was deployed at which point Mick was called in to hand over to Richard. The car was ready to go again well within the mandatory 1 minute pitstop and rejoined back into P2. It wasn’t long after Richard had begun his stint in the car before the safety car was deployed again….only to pickup the line of cars randomly, allowing the 3rd, 4th and 5th placed cars, who were a lap down on the Marcos to blast round the track ahead of the pace car and pick up the train of cars at the back which allowed them to gain a lap and were now sitting directly behind the Marcos. Although the Marcos could put in quicker average laps over a period of time, the class 1 cars behind could still put in a few laps that would be quicker overall in order to hunt down the Marcos. The safety car came in and the team had to wait for the inevitable, Richard did his best to fight off the opposition, but eventually had to concede first to the Ferrari and then the Porsche. By this time Richard was complaining of handling problems and with 10 minutes of the race remaining, the rear drive flange snapped forcing Richard to pull off the track and retire.
Meanwhile, the Bullock/Harrison car was quietly making its way up the order having stayed out of trouble and capitalising on the safety car periods for the pitstops to put them into 7th spot. Another surprise was David Upton who had also kept his head down and was now lying in 8th place behind the Marcos. They held positions to the chequered flag giving them a well earned 2nd and 3rd in class.
Sunday 26th July
Following the Mercer/Fores retirement in the Marcos, they would now have to start 17th on the grid based on the number of race laps completed on Saturday. This was almost too much to bear for Mick who had come so close to victory. He vowed that he would be at the front by the end of the first lap!
The Bullock/Harrison Marcos would line up in 7th with the @#%$, now being driven by Jeff Wyatt, in 8th. It was another clean start to the race with all cars setting off without incident. Again the snake of tussling cars disappeared into the woodlands of the GP circuit, less than a minute later the full compliment of cars had made it back to the ‘Indy’ section of the track and were heading for the pit straight, this time with one rather noticeable difference….Mick had gone from 17th to 7th, making up a staggering 10 places, the team didn’t dare to imagine how he had done it! He wasn’t about to stop there either as he took a heart stopping dive down the inside to pick another two places into Paddock Hill Bend. He was a man possessed! About 40 minutes into the race the safety car was called out to recover a car and Mick wasted no time in making the call to come in a do a driver change. It was another good pitstop, with refuelling and driver change done in under a minute. Richard rejoined the pack and the team were certain that the strategy would pay off to put us at the front by the time all the other cars had done their pitstops. It seemed that this weekend, lightening would strike twice for the team….Richard radioed to tell us that he was buried in the gravel trap as the front right suspension had collapsed. The disappointment was enormous as the car was always so close to winning. The mechanical failures could only be put down to the fact that the car was now so much faster than even the team had expected before the start of the season, now that it had a higher power output and a huge amount of downforce from the aerodynamics. This combination was surely putting more force on the components. This would be development that the team would have to tackle for the next race. The Marcos of Bullock/Harrison was having no such problems and was running faultlessly, Rupert Bullock at one point had managed to get the car up into 4th position before his turn to relinquish the drivers seat. Jeff Wyatt was clearly enjoying his time in the car and had been working up such a sweat during the race that when he came in to refuel, he threw a bottle of water over himself to cool down. Despite the disappointment of the retiring Mercer/Fores car, the teams spirits were lifted as Jeff Wyatt took 7th overall with a class win and the Marcos driven by Jon Harrison came home to take 8th overall and 2nd in class.
The next round is the 3 hour race at Snetterton on the 16th July......can we finally take our maiden victory here!
Topcats Racing arrived with a three car line up for the Brands GP race. The Marcos Mantis No. 43 of Mick Mercer and Richard Fores, Marcos Mantis No.42 of Jon Harrison and returnee Rupert Bullock who had had to sit out the last two rounds of the series. The @#%$ Tuscan was again joining the fray with driver David Upton being sole driver for the 100min Saturday race and Jeff Wyatt, sole driver for the 100min Sunday race.
Saturday 25th June
Having proven that the Marcos Mantis could challenge the times of the class 1 cars in the previous test days times, the team and drivers were hopeful of a good qualifying time from the Silver Mantis of Mercer/Fores with the improved engine performance and aerodynamic package and that the Bullock/Harrison Mantis wouldn’t be too far behind.
With just half an hours qualifying between the drivers, they were quickly able to translate the promise of yesterdays practice times into a fantastic 5th place for the Mercer/Fores cars, behind the Class 1 Ford Falcon, Porsche and Ferrari powerhouses. The Bullock/Harrison car put a very respectable lap time despite suffering a blown fuse for the power steering in the second half, to put them 13th overall and 4th in class. Meanwhile, David Upton was using the qualifying session to master the ferocious power and wayward handling of the @#%$ Tuscan. For him it would be a long race so he was happy to settle for P23 on the grid.
Mick Mercer and Rupert Bullock would start the race in their respective cars. On the green flag, the whole grid rounded the first corner without incident and eventually headed out of view onto the GP circuit. When they reappeared, Mick had clearly thrown caution to the wind and was now lying in 3rd place behind the leading 600BHP Ford Falcon and Porsche. Rupert was also making very good progress as he dispensed with several cars to put him up to 10th. Eventually, Mick had the pace to pass the Porsche to claim 2nd. The cars were now within the pit window so any safety car incident would warrant a call into the pits for refuel and driver change. Sure enough, a car had to be recovered from the track so the safety car was deployed at which point Mick was called in to hand over to Richard. The car was ready to go again well within the mandatory 1 minute pitstop and rejoined back into P2. It wasn’t long after Richard had begun his stint in the car before the safety car was deployed again….only to pickup the line of cars randomly, allowing the 3rd, 4th and 5th placed cars, who were a lap down on the Marcos to blast round the track ahead of the pace car and pick up the train of cars at the back which allowed them to gain a lap and were now sitting directly behind the Marcos. Although the Marcos could put in quicker average laps over a period of time, the class 1 cars behind could still put in a few laps that would be quicker overall in order to hunt down the Marcos. The safety car came in and the team had to wait for the inevitable, Richard did his best to fight off the opposition, but eventually had to concede first to the Ferrari and then the Porsche. By this time Richard was complaining of handling problems and with 10 minutes of the race remaining, the rear drive flange snapped forcing Richard to pull off the track and retire.
Meanwhile, the Bullock/Harrison car was quietly making its way up the order having stayed out of trouble and capitalising on the safety car periods for the pitstops to put them into 7th spot. Another surprise was David Upton who had also kept his head down and was now lying in 8th place behind the Marcos. They held positions to the chequered flag giving them a well earned 2nd and 3rd in class.
Sunday 26th July
Following the Mercer/Fores retirement in the Marcos, they would now have to start 17th on the grid based on the number of race laps completed on Saturday. This was almost too much to bear for Mick who had come so close to victory. He vowed that he would be at the front by the end of the first lap!
The Bullock/Harrison Marcos would line up in 7th with the @#%$, now being driven by Jeff Wyatt, in 8th. It was another clean start to the race with all cars setting off without incident. Again the snake of tussling cars disappeared into the woodlands of the GP circuit, less than a minute later the full compliment of cars had made it back to the ‘Indy’ section of the track and were heading for the pit straight, this time with one rather noticeable difference….Mick had gone from 17th to 7th, making up a staggering 10 places, the team didn’t dare to imagine how he had done it! He wasn’t about to stop there either as he took a heart stopping dive down the inside to pick another two places into Paddock Hill Bend. He was a man possessed! About 40 minutes into the race the safety car was called out to recover a car and Mick wasted no time in making the call to come in a do a driver change. It was another good pitstop, with refuelling and driver change done in under a minute. Richard rejoined the pack and the team were certain that the strategy would pay off to put us at the front by the time all the other cars had done their pitstops. It seemed that this weekend, lightening would strike twice for the team….Richard radioed to tell us that he was buried in the gravel trap as the front right suspension had collapsed. The disappointment was enormous as the car was always so close to winning. The mechanical failures could only be put down to the fact that the car was now so much faster than even the team had expected before the start of the season, now that it had a higher power output and a huge amount of downforce from the aerodynamics. This combination was surely putting more force on the components. This would be development that the team would have to tackle for the next race. The Marcos of Bullock/Harrison was having no such problems and was running faultlessly, Rupert Bullock at one point had managed to get the car up into 4th position before his turn to relinquish the drivers seat. Jeff Wyatt was clearly enjoying his time in the car and had been working up such a sweat during the race that when he came in to refuel, he threw a bottle of water over himself to cool down. Despite the disappointment of the retiring Mercer/Fores car, the teams spirits were lifted as Jeff Wyatt took 7th overall with a class win and the Marcos driven by Jon Harrison came home to take 8th overall and 2nd in class.
The next round is the 3 hour race at Snetterton on the 16th July......can we finally take our maiden victory here!
thats what we were calling mine on tuesday night when we re fitten the engine 
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